Subject:
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Re: Proposed solution for Building Instruction scale issue
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad, lugnet.inst
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Date:
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Sat, 18 Jan 2003 03:12:09 GMT
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Viewed:
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3517 times
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"Kevin Clague" <kevin_clague@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:H8vv2I.6M3@lugnet.com...
> <snipped>
> >
> > I have a couple of ideas that I think would improve the LPub usage • paradigm.
> > How would you like them presented to you (if at all)? Would you prefer • them
> > posted or e-mailed?
>
> Mike,
> I think posted is good.
>
> Thanks,
> Kevin
I have added lugnet.inst to this post as there seems to be a lot of LPub
related traffic in that group and the topic of my post is very much related
to instructions.
It has been a long time since I put together a model that didn't use
sub-models. I think of a design hierarchically. Most of my designs are
train related so I will context my thoughts in those terms.
For a simple passenger wagon like the middle car on the Metroliner, I would
probably end up with about 10 sub-models within a MPD. Simple things like
train windows and doors are actually a two step process - the train window
or door and the glass that goes in it.
The original Metroliner instructions show this process in instructions like
this:
http://library.brickshelf.com/scans/4000/4558/4558-10.html
I imagine it is possible to do that same type of thing in ML-CAD although I
don't personally know how to do it. To be honest, I haven't even looked
into it although I'm not sure why. Probably because I've never seen a set
of instructions from ML-CAD that did that so I simply assumed that it can't.
What I have been doing is showing the glass addition process as a two step
call out.
See page 13 of this document to see an example:
http://www.carolinatrainbuilders.com/fmotm/0201/CTB-1116-std.pdf
So I will have a sub-model for the window, a sub-model for the left hand
door, one for the right hand door, one for the truck, one for the under
carriage, one for the roof and possibly one or two more depending on the
interior.
I have a top level model that puts all of these together in the right order
and wa-la - I have my model. Historically I have used LD-Lite to generate
instruction quality images. I export all of the sub-models to a
sub-directory and then invoke LD-Lite on the sub-models with the
appropriate arguments to achieve the result I want in the final printed
instructions.
I exported all of the sub-models and operated on them independently so work
quickly and fine tune my LD-Lite arguments. If I rendered the entire model
each time it made the process painfully long.
I would like to see LPub incorporate a similar ability. It already
understands the hierarchy of an MPD file as per the discussion that began
this thread several days ago. I would love to see some sort of list in the
GUI of all of the sub-models contained within the MPD and then under user
control, select one or more (check boxes?) to be processed by LPub. I may
choose one set of settings for some of the sub-models and another group of
settings for another sub-model, and yet another group of settings for
something else. Right now I would have to run LPub three times and save the
generated images in another location between runs to get the result I want.
As ean example, I will work on one sub-model at a fairly low resolution
until I am happy with all of the steps and their viewing angle. Once I am
done with that, I want to fire off LPub with the high quality settings and
come back to it when it is done.
Ideally I would like to build up a recipe for LPub generation for a model.
I would iterate through my sub-models refinining settings, tweaking my MPD
until I was happy with each step. For example, I may want to generate the
images for all of the sub-models that will end up as call outs in the final
instruction book with a light yellow background. Once my recipe was
complete I would crank up a top level run on the whole design for a final
set of images.
For any of you electrical engineers out there, my thought process is not
unlike an ASIC design. Perform all of the block level synthesis
independently until each block is correct. Once all of the blocks are done
(well they're never really done but you have to tape out at some point) then
tie it together with a top level, top down synthesis.
So I guess what I am asking for is the ability to work with the sub-models
of my design without having to manually decompose my MPD file in order to do
so.
I hope this makes sense, let me know if something is confusing.
Mike
PS: One other thing - I would like to be able to specify an output
directory so all of my generated images end up in a particular directory.
--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring.com
http://www.ncltc.cc - North Carolina LEGO Train Club
http://www.carolinatrainbuilders.com - Carolina Train Builders
http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=mpw - CTB/Brick Depot
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